Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Make Me Rain by Nikki Giovanni - Available

Make Me Rain

Poems & Prose

by Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

An extraordinary listening experience! Hear Nikki Giovanni read from her newest collection of poems!

One of America's most celebrated poets challenges us with this powerful and deeply personal collection of verse that speaks to the injustices of society while illuminating the depths of her own heart.

For more than fifty years, Nikki Giovanni's poetry has dazzled and inspired readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, she returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and racism, celebrate Black culture and Black lives, and and give readers an unfiltered look into her own experiences.

In Make Me Rain, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her Black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism. Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as "I Come from Athletes" and "Rainy Days"—calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as "Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)" and ""When I Could No Longer"—her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life.

Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 20, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780062999634
      • File size: 61693 KB
      • Duration: 02:08:31

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 23, 2020
      Giovanni (Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid) celebrates in her poignant 20th collection art as redemptive of traumas past and present, illuminating the ways in which “the blues is our encyclopedia.” With a mind attuned to ironies, Giovanni considers refuge from systemic injustice: “I remember sitting/ During the age of segregation/ In the ‘colored’ car/ Where the Pullman Porters looked out/ For my sister and me/ And we didn’t understand we were/ Not wanted/ We loved it.” In “When I Could No Longer,” speakers affirm the healing power of community against personal abuse, elegizing godmothers, grandmothers, educators and friends, including the late Toni Morrison. The most memorable moments in the collection reveal the cutting directness that made her a laureate of the Black Arts Movement: “The blues may talk about/ My man/ Or my woman/ Who left me/ Or took my money/ And is gone/ But what they mean/ Is I was stolen/ In an African war.” Similarly, in “Lemonade Grows From Soil, Too,” the speaker wryly notes, “Everybody wants to confuse love with sex. Ask Bill Cosby about that.” Such pleasurable jolts offset the collection’s more rhetorically slack moments and reinforce Giovanni’s unapologetic commitment to documenting both injustice and joy.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Nikki Giovanni's slightly raspy, slightly sibilant voice draws listeners into this important collection of poetry and prose. Letting her poet's sense guide her tempo, Giovanni wrings the humor, anger, and sorrow out of being Black in America. In "And So It Comes to This," Giovanni's mocking tone is the perfect match for a scathing indictment of white men and their obsession with a false supremacy. Her palpable anger recalls the death of Michael Brown in "Ferguson: the Musical," and her heart seems to be breaking as she describes "the brother" getting up in the dark to drive to the Million Man March. Warm tones express themes of quilts and songs and love. As Giovanni tells us, "All is transition and love is forever." S.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      May 1, 2020

      Distinguished African American poet/activist Giovanni, winner of the Black Caucus of the ALA Honor Award for Nonfiction among dozens of other awards, celebrates her heritage and head-butts Donald Trump's policies in her first volume of verse in seven years. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      September 1, 2020
      Giovanni's latest collection is her finest to date. Imbued with the classic, accessible, and deeply empathetic style of this venerated American poet, these works touch on topics ranging from aging, memories of childhood, elegies for loved ones who have passed, and pride in Black heritage. Giovanni presents beautiful ruminations on history ("We sang the blues in the cotton fields / Not to complain / about our lives but to let / Each other know / We are still here / We stirred the blues / In our stews"), and offers eloquent observations of our time, bringing the personal and the political into inextricable connection. The strongest are reflections of the poet's own legacy, as in Biography: "So that is this / Bio / I'm here / And if I mist / On emotional soil / A weed will / Grow / Make me rain / Let me be a part / Of this needed change." Giovanni's ability to pare down complex subjects in exquisitely succinct poetic forms makes her work timeless and profoundly resonant for both poetry aficionados and casual readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading